Made It: Notepad

Make it yourself!
 

Last week I found myself with a stack of one-sided pieces of paper to put in the recycling after going through our gigantic and neglected mail pile.  I also had been lamenting my lack of organization to keep up with my list habit.  I love making lists for stuff (to-do, groceries, projects, whatever...) and I like to use scrap paper for them, but often my little scraps get lost in the vortex of our computer desk.  I have in the past tried stapling scraps together, which is always slightly dissatisfying when you want to tear off a piece, and a paper clip might as well not even be there.  But I do have a sewing machine...

These are ridiculously easy to make, and another total no-brainer, but I LOVE them.  I love making my lists on them, I love tearing the pages off, I love knowing where my lists are now...  They're great.

Just cut your scrap pages into the size note pad you want (I cut in 3 sideways, where the folds would be to put it in an envelope).  I'm also pretty lax about the size of each page.  You can be as tidy or untidy as you want.  Then, using a wide straight stitch on my sewing machine I carefully feed the stack through, remembering to backstitch on both sides.  I didn't do that on one of mine, and now every time I tear off a page I can see the stitches pulling out.  I also have to do this very slowly, using the balance wheel on the side rather than the foot pedal, in order to help the needle through all the layers. 

The awesome part of this whole endeavor is that since the needle punches through the papers to sew them, it creates a perforation that makes tearing a page out of your notebook SO EASY!  This is one of my favourite little projects lately.  And you could totally dress up this project any way you like.  Right now I'm just doing it in a very utilitarian way, but you could use fancier papers, coloured thread, different sized pages... you are limited only by your imagination!